


Starting a New Pack Den

by LaBelleetlaloup



Series: Werewolf Courtship [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Always Female Stiles Stilinski, Courtship, F/M, Light Angst, POV Derek, The Hale House, Werewolf Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 20:44:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4639560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaBelleetlaloup/pseuds/LaBelleetlaloup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek has the remains of his old house demolished.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starting a New Pack Den

Derek watched from a distance on demolition day. It had hurt to make the arrangements but the house was nothing more than a husk and it was better this way. None of them would have wanted that kind of memorial anyway. A living memorial was always better. Besides, he was rebuilding. It was healthy. This may or may not have had anything to do with Stiles.

The first blow hit the house and Derek swayed with the building, grabbing onto the tree beside him for support. He felt almost sick. That was his home, his den. His family had lived and died there. It took an inordinate amount of self-control to keep himself from running down to the clearing and sending the construction workers he had hired away. The second blow took out the upper floor and what little had been left of the attic. Derek watched in silence, claws digging into the bark of the tree he was still holding onto. The whole house was in ruins on the ground inside of an hour. It had stood for a century, built by the pack and withstood countless storms and fights and earthquakes, but a Huntress with a match and a team of three humans with construction equipment had razed it to the ground. Granted, Derek had authorized the second half of it and inadvertently aided in the first half but it still seemed anticlimactic and almost disappointing.

Of course, he was doing this for a purpose. Despite the fact no one lived there now, it was still the last place declared the Hale Pack den and as such it was still how people judged the state of the pack. A burned-out husk was not a symbol of strength but weakness. A new house in the same spot would clearly be the new pack den and would be a statement of strength. If he perhaps had an ulterior motive in wanting this done now, rather than leaving it for later, well, that was his own business.

The construction workers packed up after the house was on the ground and left. Derek slowly walked down to the ruins. He had scoured the house the day before to make sure there wasn’t anything left to be destroyed when it came down, but he still needed to look through the scorched wood. Just to see. Derek ended up with ash smudged on his hands and face and arms and shirt and pants by the time he was finished scouring through the wreckage. Of course, there was nothing but charred wood and roofing. He had known that. But he had to check. He was standing staring in the middle of the foundation, tears threatening to fall, when his phone broke the silence with Stiles’ ringtone-an instrumental beat that complemented the pace of her heart. Derek dashed the tears away with a brusque hand as he pulled his phone out and answered the call.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Everyone’s here, but we seem to be missing someone,” Stiles replied, voice teasing. “It’s a bit odd to have a gathering with the host being the one who didn’t show up.”

“I got caught up, I’ll be there in a few minutes,” he assured her, heading back towards his car. It had somehow gotten dark around him, he noticed. Though who even knew how long he had spent examining every fallen piece of wood? He’d probably spent hours.

**Author's Note:**

> Since I've been working so much on my Merlin story, with my usual poor timing, I thought I would go ahead and post these. I have nothing further written and it will probably be at least a month before I'm done with my Merlin story and can get back to writing Sterek so it will be a while before this updates but it isn't abandoned.


End file.
